Jean Cocteau Quotes

The Louvre is a morgue; you go there to identify your friends.

I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.

Since the day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying.

Art is not a pastime but a priesthood.

Style is a simple way of saying complicated things.

Mirrors should think longer before they reflect.

The composer opens the cage door for arithmetic, the draftsman gives geometry its freedom.

Film will only became an art when its materials are as inexpensive as pencil and paper.

Such is the role of poetry. It unveils, in the strict sense of the word. It lays bare, under a light which shakes off torpor, the surprising things which surround us and which our senses record mechanically.

Nothing ever gets anywhere. The earth keeps turning round and gets nowhere. The moment is the only thing that counts.

If a poet has a dream, it is not of becoming famous, but of being believed.

The prettiest dresses are worn to be taken off.

Living is a horizontal fall.

Emotion resulting from a work of art is only of value when it is not obtained by sentimental blackmail.

Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious.

You've never seen death? Look in the mirror every day and you will see it like bees working in a glass hive.

An original artist is unable to copy. So he has only to copy in order to be original.

I have seafoam in my veins, I understand the language of waves.

What is line? It is life. A line must live at each point along its course in such a way that the artist's presence makes itself felt above that of the model... With the writer, line takes precedence over form and content. It runs through the words he assembles. It strikes a continuous note unperceived by ear or eye. It is, in a way, the soul's style, and if the line ceases to have a life of its own, if it only describes an arabesque, the soul is missing and the writing dies.

Everything one does in life, even love, occurs in an express train racing toward death. To smoke opium is to get out of the train while it is still moving. It is to concern oneself with something other than life or death.

An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.

A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses.

I only fear the death of others. For me, true death is that of the people I love

Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie.

The worst tragedy for a poet is to be admired through being misunderstood.

French people are Italian people in a bad mood.

We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like?

What uniform can I wear to hide my heavy heart? It is too heavy. It will always show.

Listen carefully to first criticisms made of your work. Note just what it is about your work that critics don't like - then cultivate it. That's the only part of your work that's individual and worth keeping.

The job of the poet (a job which can't be learned) consists of placing those objects of the visible world which have become invisible due to the glue of habit, in an unusual position which strikes the soul and gives them a tragic force.

Man seeks to escape himself in myth, and does so by any means at his disposal. Drugs, alcohol, or lies. Unable to withdraw into himself, he disguises himself. Lies and inaccuracy give him a few moments of comfort.

Poets don't draw. They unravel their handwriting and then tie it up again, but differently.

May the devil himself splatter you with dung.

Beauty cannot be recognized with a cursory glance.

All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it.

Poetry is a religion without hope. The poet exhausts himself in its service, knowing that, in the long run, a masterpiece is nothing but the performance of a trained dog on very shaky ground.

Art produces ugly things which frequently become more beautiful with time. Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time.

The joy of the young is to disobey

In Paris, everybody wants to be an actor; nobody is content to be a spectator.

Do as the beautiful woman: see to your figure and your petticoats. Though, of course, I am not speaking literally.

The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.

Never do what a specialist can do better. Discover your own specialty. Do not despair if your specialty appears to be more delicate, a lesser thing. Make up in finesse what you lose in force.

Poetry is an ethic. By ethic I mean a secret code of behavior, a discipline constructed and conducted according to the capabilities of a man who rejects the falsifications of the categorical imperative.

We shelter an angel within us. We must be the guardians of that angel.

There's no such thing as love; only proof of love.

The eyes of the dead are closed gently; we also have to open gently the eyes of the living.

Lying is the only art form that the public sanctions and instinctively prefers to reality.

After the writer's death, reading his journal is like receiving a long letter.

Mystery has its own mysteries, and there are gods above gods. We have ours, they have theirs. That is what's known as infinity.

If it has to choose who is to be crucified, the crowd will always save Barabbas.